“After my first win, the open water 3K, the feeling was more of relief than excitement,” Shaps, the only U.S. Masters Swimming representative to win an open water and a pool event, wrote in an email. “[It’s] hard to get excited when you’re tired. It was a great way to start the competition, taking the stress off, allowing me to enjoy more of Budapest and the meet.

“The [open water] was a completely different race from the other two. The 200 was exciting as the water was very clear, with a bright day outdoors so everyone could see everyone else. Pacing and strategy played key roles, something I’m not very used to.

“There was no strategy in the 50 other than getting to the wall first. This is my favorite race as it reminds me of childhood days where, as kids in the public pool, we’re all hanging on the gutter and someone says, ‘Race you?!?’ Then someone takes off.”

Shaps was a part of a group of USMS swimmers who recorded eight of the 35 world records set at the meet, a performance led by Tamalpais Aquatic Masters swimmer Laura Val, who broke four individual records and was part of a record-setting mixed 4x50 freestyle relay.

“I was trying to break some world records,” Inada wrote in an email. “I was happy to break one world record.”

There were also nine USMS records broken at the meet, including one by MOVY Masters swimmer Siphiwe Baleka, who proposed to his girlfriend on the medal stand following his second-place finish in the men’s 45-49 200 individual medley.

Work Pays Off

Rose Bowl Masters swimmer Dan Stephenson spent the past year focused on training for the FINA World Masters Championships. His effort paid off with four gold medals.

Stephenson’s times in the 200- and 400-meter freestyle events in Hungary would’ve been world records, but he had already broken those marks less than two weeks earlier in the 2017 USMS Summer National Championship in Minneapolis.

“[Tapering for back-to-back meets is] always tricky,” Stephenson wrote in an email. “My goals for the [FINA] meet were to have fun, see old friends from all over the world, and to be a good steward of my God-given talents. I also love to race, so I hope to win if possible.”

Stephenson accomplished that in what was perhaps USMS’s best showing in Hungary: a 1-2-3 finish in the men’s 60-64 100-meter freestyle. He went a 58.51, beating Alaska Masters Swim Club’s Rick Abbott and Atlanta Water Jocks’s John Fields.

“The USA 1-2-3 in the 100 free was very fun,” Stephenson wrote. “Rick Abbott and John Fields are great competitors. It’s an honor to be in their league and touch ahead of them from time to time.”

Phoenix Swim Club’s Kohei Kawamoto (35-39 100-meter butterfly) joined Stephenson as the only male USMS swimmers to break world records.

RELAY

Daniel Paulling works as the managing editor of SWIMMER magazine and manages content development and production for the STREAMLINES eNewsletter series and articles published on usms.org. He swam for four years at Rollins College and covered Southeastern Conference athletics, Major League Baseball, and the NFL for a number of newspapers and websites across the country, including the Kansas City Star, MLB.com, and USA Today, before joining USMS in March 2017.